This is a deliberately paced, atmospherically tense, and thematically rich real-time strategy game that makes me wanna go HNNNNNNG. You want more adverbs? I can do this all day.

HARDWARE: Shipbreakers, as you may have heard, is built by a team comprised of Homeworld (a late '90s classic) veterans huddled together in a room for warmth. In this first gameplay video, units ride along an arid landscape rife with sand and dunes and *kshhht* copious radio chatter *kshhht*. Fast-moving aerial units soar in on recon duty, a big old Baserunner vehicle lumbers in to start the hard work of "shipbreaking," I presume, and smaller combat vehicles fall into a defensive posture as enemy units start pinging the radar.

By all means, enjoy your conveyor-belt MOBAs and run-of-the-mill RTSes, but, come November and December of the year it launches (be it 2013 or, more likely, 2014), HARDWARE: Shipbreakers will be taking home all your strategy game of the year awards--mark my irrefutable words. Closed beta is scheduled at the end of this year, however, and is now open to applicants if you want to be one of the first boots on the ground scavenging planet LM-27.

VANCOUVER, Canada – May 29, 2013 – Blackbird Interactive, a videogame developer specializing in sci-fi real-time strategy games, has released the first gameplay trailer for their upcoming online strategy game HARDWARE: Shipbreakers. Following the release of a series of assets introducing the game’s visual style, this brand new trailer will show players how in-game graphics have been fully realized based upon the iconic, original concept art. Players can expect the game to closely resemble the stylized concept art as they traverse the varied terrain of LM-27.

In the gameplay trailer released today, entitled “First Contact,” players can get a first look at the derelict ship graveyards, unit formations and the completely free control camera as well as never before seen in-game units. This video marks players’ “First Contact” with the game and the game’s first contact with enemy units, the shipwrecks around which gameplay occurs. Fans of Homeworld, which came from the creators of HARDWARE: Shipbreakers, will notice the eerily familiar look and style of the air units in HARDWARE: Shipbreakers.

The closed beta is scheduled to begin Q4 2013 and is now open to applicants. Players can support the game’s development through the purchase of limited edition pre-sale packages at www.blackbirdinteractive.com/store.